PDFescape Free PDF Editor

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on August 11, 2010

PDFs are all over the place, and although they can be handy, we personally feel that they're overused. We hate it when we go to a Web site and information that could easily be displayed on a normal page--such as a restaurant's menu--is instead hidden away in a PDF, which we must then download and view using another application. PDFescape Free PDF Editor lets Chrome users view and even edit PDF files within their browsers. Users should be aware, however, that the program is not really a full-featured PDF editor.

The program installed easily as a Chrome extension, and accessing it is as simple as clicking on the link to the PDF you want to view. A small menu appears allowing users to select whether they want to edit the PDF in PDFescape, edit the PDF in a new tab, or open the file normally by downloading it. We couldn't actually tell any difference between the first two options; both of them opened a new tab within Chrome and displayed an editable version of the PDF. The editor interface is intuitive, with tabs for inserting text and objects and for formatting pages. Users can insert blocks of text, obscure text with a white-out feature, and add shapes and arrows, as well as reorder, rotate, and delete pages. PDFescape works great for filling out PDF forms or making notes on a PDF, but users should be aware that the existing text and images within the PDF cannot be edited. PDFescape can be used without registration, but users who register can save files to the PDFescape server to be accessed later. The program did not appear to have a Help file, but we found it pretty easy to figure out. Overall, we think that PDFescape is a great program, as long as you understand what it is--and isn't--capable of.

PDFescape Free PDF Editor installs and uninstalls without issues. We recommend this extension to all users.